Christmas is arriving slowly at the shop this year, one corner at a time. Here are a few simple ways to decorate, with the pieces that do most of the work, and some ideas from our Christmas shoot.
Start with greenery
Something green is an easy place to start. A few branches over a doorway, foliage along a shelf or a jug of cuttings on the table. It can cost next to nothing, it smells wonderful and it gives everything else something to sit against.
Don't forget we'll have fresh eucalyptus for sale in the shop from late November - very much the marker of the season fully arriving for us. The shop smells good ordinarily but it's next level at Christmas time!
For our shoot, we tucked straw stars into the branches over a doorway. They're light enough to sit on delicate stems, and they look just as good scattered across a table or tied onto a parcel.
Garlands do the heavy lifting
Garlands are one of my favourite ways to decorate, yes, because they're beautiful but also because they're high impact for very little effort. Drape across mantels, down the sides of mirrors, around door frames and over the kitchen table, and they fold away easily at the end, so you aren't burdened with mountains of things needing storage space all the rest of the year.
Two that look lovely together are the Falling Star Garland and the Dots String Garland. There's also the Kotte Star & Dots Garland and the little Palm Star Garland. For something that catches the candlelight, the brass Antiqued Stars Garland and Embossed Star Garland are the ones.
There are more ideas in Simple Ways to Decorate: Garlands.
Mistletoe that doesn't wilt
The Antiqued Brass Hanging Mistletoe can go up on a hook or a door handle in early December and stay there until January. No berries dropping on the floor, and it packs away for next year. There's a silver version too, and smaller bunches in brass and silver that are just right for tucking into greenery or onto a present.
A wreath for the door
If you'd like a wreath you don't have to replace each year, the Antiqued Brass Star & Bead Wreath and Brass Clover Wreath are small enough to hang inside, on a cupboard door, the back of a chair or a hook in the hall. The Brass Red Berry Garland can be looped into a wreath shape too, if you want a little red.
Keeping the tree simple
A tree doesn't need to be covered in everything. A handful of brass, a few paper stars and warm, natural lights can be plenty.
The brass ornaments from Fine Little Day are a lovely place to start. A bow, a glove and a little chair, cut from thin brass, simple shapes that catch the light as they turn on the branch.
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Back in the shop this year is the Embossed Folk Trio, a heart, a bird and a star, which sold out in just a few weeks last Christmas. There are also the Gold Acorn Ornaments, and for the top, or a window, the Sirius Paper Star.
If you'd like real candlelight, the Antiqued Tree Clip Candle Holders clip onto a sturdy branch, or a single branch laid along the table. Please never leave them lit unattended, and keep the flame well clear of anything dry.
The table
The table can get the same treatment: a bit of green, some beeswax and whatever you already have. A small set of paper trees down the middle, English beeswax dinner candles and an Änglaspel turning away above a tealight.
I've written more about laying a table in Simple Ways to Decorate: The Table and about beeswax in Simple Ways to Decorate: Candles.
Putting it all away again
The best bit of decorating this way is that it all comes out again next year and there are so many variations and small changes you can make to create a new look each year.
A word of warning from experience: a mouse found our birthday decoration box in the shed last year, and we lost quite a few favourites from the collection I'd grown throughout my children's early years. Learn from my mistake and store yours in a lidded box, somewhere dry, with the garlands folded flat on top.
You'll find everything here in our Christmas collection, and in the shop in Lostwithiel, which is slowly filling up with more of it every day.
Alice x